As one of the fastest growing distribution companies in the USA, this case study provides insight on how Cascade can be used to streamline multiple business processes and engage their people in the implementation of their strategies.

“Cascade delivers everything we need in a strategy tool, right through to individual performance management. The pricing was many times more competitive than any other system we assessed.”

Strategic Execution requires a systemic process that provides the ability for all stakeholders (employees, contractors, vendors and customers) to understand their role participate in the execution of a company’s strategy.  Cascade provides a cloud based business process where ALL stakeholders can see progress and communicate with each other.

Anti-Strategy is an interesting phenomenon. Have you ever wondered why someone in the company, a peer, a direct report or even the boss has done something that just didn’t make sense? Maybe it was reorganization, a change in product direction, adding new people that should be in other organizations, or worse yet, done nothing? Of course you have. You are probably guilty of it yourself, although you may not realize it or don’t want to admit it. Smart, successful and highly compensated people often do things that don’t seem to fit or support the program or your perspective of the direction of the company.

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A very interesting read on recent research that indicates that we, as senior leaders, really do need to reconsider how we provide feedback to our employees: vis a vis, something different than yearly static employee evaluations.

If you wanted any more evidence that traditional performance appraisal methods are (at best) counter-productive, then new research (more…)

Group50 has introduced a new cost effective cloud based performance management and strategic execution tool called Cascade. This system provides clients with the ability to achieve higher levels of employee engagement, monitor key strategy implementation, focus on cultural and performance objectives throughout the organization and institutionalize winning behaviors throughout their company.

Companies who have implemented Cascade have seen significant improvement in their operating performance at all levels.
Read more about utilizing Cascade for:

• Executing Strategy
• Performance Management

About Group50^® specializes in the development and implementation of manufacturing and supply chain strategies. The Group50 team are all former executives with well-known manufacturing and distribution companies who understand what it takes to put together and manage the implementation of a successful strategic plan. Group50 has designed a series of strategic assessments, workshops and strategic execution tools that eliminate the existence of Anti-Strategy^TM. You can reach us at (909) 949-9083, request more information here or send a note to info@group50.com.

Over the past few years it has been well documented that technology can significantly improve employee engagement and performance management.  We see that networking has significantly increased the ability of people to accelerate their business dealings and personal relationships. Just about everyone in the workforce is familiar (more…)

I was just forwarded a study by Mark Murphy, Founder & CEO of Leadership IQ. As I read it, I was fascinated by the results. In a survey of 48,000 CEO’s managers and employees, only 13% of managers and employees and 6% of CEOs thought their year-end reviews were effective. For my entire career, I have not been part of the 13% or the 6%. Why?

As the study points out, there are three primary reasons:

1. The first was a lack of differentiation: reviews aren’t synced to performance so there’s no real recognition for being a high performer
2. The second reason why people really dislike performance reviews is because the boss’ feedback isn’t relevant. Employees are walking away from performance reviews shaking their heads and wondering if the boss even knows what they did this year.
3. This is the third big reason why employees don’t like performance reviews. Most managers conduct performance reviews from a boss/employee perspective rather than using it is a coaching and mentoring tool. They sit across the desk from employees and say “this is your ‘grade’ and this is your pay” and they hope employees don’t have too many questions, because there are another dozen more reviews to conduct.

Ever feel this way as either a manager or an employee? Yearly performance appraisals are typically a “check the box activity”, that is done because it is policy, rather than using reviews as a tool to engage employees in open and transparent dialogue on the needs of the company and the employee. Yearly reviews cannot accurately reflect what an employee is being held accountable for, because the objectives of the business change real time, not yearly. Many leaders approach their business on a cyclical basis, but they are fooling themselves, because their business is dynamic and real time. They need to communicate these changes as they occur, and if that impacts the performance objective of an employee, that employee should know about it and begin supporting it.

I am in favor of scrapping paper based yearly evaluations as part of an effective organizational development strategy, because I have never seen one work well, and the aforementioned study bears this out. It is truly a shame for a business to expend this much effort on yearly appraisals to achieve these kind of results. If the finance team were to do an ROI on the yearly cost and the obvious lack of benefit, they would recommend scrapping a paper based system all together.

I am not against evaluations though. I am in favor of a real time system that allows for employees and managers to have two way discussions about what the business is going to hold them accountable for: clear and concise performance objectives.

That is why Group50 has spent so much resource and time supporting our newest product offering Cascade: a low cost, cloud based system that gives employees, managers and senior leaders that ability to all be on the same page, to communicate with each other on how objectives are being met on a real time basis and to instantly change objectives throughout the organization when business conditions require it.

You can see a short video on Cascade here. After viewing this, please post a comment, give me a call at (909) 949-9083 or drop me a note at jgitney@group50.com to let me know what you think about ETW, or the study.

About Group50 and the author:
Group50’s focus is on strategic execution^TM. Jim Gitney, the CEO of Group50 has worked with organizations of every size in support of their movement to a culture of effective strategic execution, and realize their potential in the marketplace. You can request more information here, email info@group50.com, or call (909) 949-9083 for more information. To see the services that Group50 provides, go to our home page

I was talking to several CEOs the other day about the challenges of today’s business climate and the parts of our businesses where we can continue to realize productivity gains. We all agreed that opportunities existed throughout our businesses to improve productivity, but quickly honed in on a discussion around how well our employees were aligned with our Vision, Mission, Values and Corporate Objectives. Everyone squirmed for a moment thinking about organizational alignment and organizational development, (more…)

During a keynote address at IIR’s Balanced Scorecard Forum, Robert Kaplan, a leading international business management guru, revealed “that less than 10% of formulated strategies are executed effectively” and an international survey indicated that consistently executing strategic objectives were in the top three concerns of CEO’s and corporate boards. Kaplan also added “that it is a well know fact that organizations who have a formal strategy execution process dramatically outperform the rest”. Effectively and consistently implementing corporate strategy requires all stakeholders to be aligned to those objectives, understand their role in achieving them and be accountable for effective implementation. If your company doesn’t have a formal process, then the hard work is figuring out what one looks like. A strategic execution process must (more…)